This weekend concluded the completely sold out hand lettering workshops run by Anastasia from The Articulate! The past three workshops have been the inaugural events for an initiative formed by Stacey Clark aptly named The Creatives. During these afternoons of fun, Anastasia shared with us what inspires her and a few tricks of the trade along with the technicalities of lettering to get us started. It was clear from the outset how passionate Anastasia is about her craft and we listened with ears pricked, hoping some of her talent and experience would rub off on ourselves. Attendees ranged from complete novices to a couple of quite accomplished letterers! (See the last photo to see what I mean! Like whaaaat…)

The workshops were held in the new kid on the Leederville Block, Bill’s Bar and Bites, which is so remarkably and ruthlessly stripped back that I could barely remember that the Leederville Hotel used to stand within the same walls. Bare brick walls and warm wooden surfaces played well besides Stacey’s ever impeccable styling.

Everyone came away with an educational and valuable experience, from meeting like-minded people with a love of creativity to getting rusty and unsure fingers a little more limber and confident at forming beautifully shaped letters. Anastasia’s workshops have wrapped up with The Creatives for now but you can still snap up tickets for her next class for The Skillsmithery on the Studio Bomba website. The price includes equipment, drinks and nibbles, and a damn good time. If you’re a lover of hand lettering, calligraphy, typography or you’d like to increase the productivity of your telephone-conversation-doodling, this is the class for you.

Feel like flexing a different set of creative muscles? Next on The Creatives’ calendar is a super cool class on crafting your very own hand-bound leather notebook with Alena Warm.

Bit by bit, our favourite local food hole, Leederville, is transforming. There’s been a spate of changes along ye olde Oxford St, and there are a number of new, interesting and happening food joints such as Bill’s Bar, Pincho’s and and now Low Key Chow House. There is very little signage from the street to indicate Low Key’s presence but there’s no denying its brand new facade which beckons you to enter the warmly lit space.

The hip industrial aesthetic plays off well against the quirky menus plastered with the faces of Asian icons like Bruce Lee and iron chefs saying, “…And den…?”. The food features re-imagined Asian staples from Malaysia to Korea to Vietnam and back again. My personal favourites? The bak kwah sliders and citrus cured kingfish with betel leaf.

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There is so much to love about Ryder’s latest offerings this season. I want to frolic around in these raffia brogues, totes-fash around in this matching two piece, and cosy up in this leather jacket. It’s a good thing we’re saving up for our impending house renovation, otherwise “hello credit card and goodbye money!”

Ryder started off as Arabella Ramsay’s diffusion line but has now really taken off on its own and has well and truly kicked its older sister out of the limelight. A mix of kickass, laidback attitude with great quality, the label is now headed by Penny Brown, Arabella’s previous assistant designer. Ryder is stocked a mere 5 hour drive away from Perth at Eclectic Ladyland in Albany. Don’t fancy a roadtrip down south? Then check out their stuff online.

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Someone who I’ve been ogling from afar (and who I was most flattered to find had been counter-ogling us from afar since last year!) is the super-talented, nimble-fingered and ever-humble Anastasia, known also under her creative name, The Articulate. Whenever I find people who follow their creative hearts, I always jump at the chance to speak to them face to face, talk to them about their craft and find out what motivates them. The sadly rusty and disused right side of my brain stirs into action and basks in the light that these people and their accomplishments give off.

Anastasia is one of those people. Whilst working her enjoyable (but relatively non-creative) day job, Anastasia first dabbled her toes in the waters of being a stylist for events and weddings. Feeding off the success of this and her constant need to doodle and draw, she found herself a niche in bespoke hand lettering. After a string of recent roaring successes and the well-deserved exposure (her part in the recent beautiful Kinfolk Gathering to mention one) she has springboarded herself into the limelight as one of Perth’s leading hand letterers. All I can say is, watch this space…How did you find out you had a gift for hand lettering?

I grew up in a pretty creative family! My dad is an architect and my younger sister is a concept artist for an animation company based in Kuala Lumpur. And, for as long as I can remember, I’ve always been an unstoppable doodler. It was a pretty common occurrence for me to get into trouble at school back in Indonesia for doodling in class! In fact, I still scribble down small projects during my breaks at work when the inspiration takes me – my cubicle is absolutely covered with them!

What I love so much about handlettering is its freedom of form which really allows your own creativity and style to shine through. You can incorporate multiple fonts as well as illustrations to create something that looks amazing as a whole and expresses your own individuality.

I’m really inspired by the incredible talents of people such as Dana Tanamachi and Jessica Hische. Also, for day to day inspiration I love drawing from quotes from books I’ve read and lines from my favourite songs! My sister is still my biggest fan and critic, and she holds nothing back! She’ll make me redo everything from scratch if it’s not up to standard and I’m very grateful for it!

What have been some of the highlights of your creative career so far?

Definitely working with Stacey Clark for last month’s Kinfolk gathering, L’Esprit de la Mer! I got to design the menus and create a print that was gifted to everyone who came to the dinner. What an absolute blast! The menus were letterpressed by Type Hype, a fun and challenging process that I’m completely new to and really enjoyed.

I’ve also got a series of workshops for people keen on learning hand lettering coming up really soon. The first three classes have completely sold out incredibly quickly! I’m equal parts surprised, flattered, excited and nervous! I’ve got plans to do more workshops with Studio Bomba in the near future…stay tuned!

So where to from here?

I like to constantly challenge myself by learning new skills that both hone and widen my skills. Most recently I’ve been attending a course on how to use Adobe Illustrator. Next things on the list would be learning the fine crafts of letterpress and screenprinting!

I’ve been living in Perth for twelve years now and it really is home to me. As much as I love and find places like Melbourne inspirational and fun, Perth has its own thing going on and there’s a real hunger for creativity that I’m so proud and happy to be able to be a part of right now.

My big dream is to release my own stationery line, and fingers crossed it’s going to happen by the end of next year! I can’t wait!Thanks for the chat Tash! Looking forward to another gasbag over brunch (with eggs)! So awesome to meet another Dana Tanamachi afficionado and Anthropologie devotee.

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Alphabet Family Journal is an upcoming print magazine that celebrates families, big and small, diverse and messy – all the different types of people that come together to make a home. Due to hit the printing presses in June 2014, Alphabet is brainchild of Sydney-based food and lifestyle photographer Luisa Brimble. Issue A is a collaborative effort of 25 photographers from 3 continents, in addition to 22 writers and 3 artists, all sharing stories and images of their own family lives.

Alphabet was initially funded via Kickstarter and reached its target after only a few weeks, however if you check out their page now, you will find there are still a number of very tempting offers left.

I’m super excited to see how Alphabet Family Journal looks in person – it’s about time we saw an Australian publication like this!